A Clean-cut White Guy On Drugs…A Real Tragedy

Note: This story originally appeared on my blog on July 9, 2015.

A former FBI agent was just sentenced to three years in prison for stealing heroin seized during drug raids, then using it to fuel his own drug addiction. His actions led up to the dismissal of charges against more than two dozen drug dealers.

According to his attorney, Matthew Lowry began using heroin after becoming addicted to prescription painkillers. He then began stealing the drug from the FBI evidence room.

As I read the opening paragraphs of the AFP story, my initial impulse was to feel compassion. After all, drug addictions (or addictions of any kind) are no joke and Mr. Lowry must have suffered immensely because of his. I also felt a little righteous indignation: Mr. Lowry only began using heroin after a doctor prescribed highly addictive pain medications to him. All too often, doctors over-prescribe these drugs, then fail to monitor patients for signs of dependency. Should he really be punished so harshly when licensed health care professionals obviously failed him?

My heart twisted a little more when I read of Mr. Lowry’s outstanding achievements. Graduating with honors from the FBI training academy, Lowry ended up working in “an elite anti-drug trafficking unit.” As someone who sometimes feels that I have fallen short of my aspirations because I failed to live up to my potential, I understand that Mr. Lowry must be anguished at the fall from grace he has experienced.

Then I read the part of the article where Mr. Lowry’s attorney, Robert Bonsib, attempted to explain for Lowry’s behavior. His statement reads in part:

He was using heroin not to get high, but to be able to work hard…This is a young man who from the time he was a child wanted to be a police officer. When he was four, five, six, he was dressing as a police officer. That aspiration has been crushed by his own conduct…He’s devastated by the consequences of his conduct…There’s a story to be told, which could be helpful for others…

Bonsib also noted that Lowry has completed rehab, attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and hopes for leniency.

Newsflash, Mr. Bonsib! No true heroin addict uses to get high; after a point, many only use to avoid the crippling withdrawal symptoms. And, yes, many of those heroin addicts are holding down jobs while they use to avoid withdrawal. Third, no one — not even freaks and weirdos — aspires to be a drug addict. Every drug addict who is currently walking the earth wanted something better for themselves and many more of them continue to aspire to better things — if they can only kick their habit.

And every single recovering drug addict is “devastated by the consequences of [their] conduct.” Many of them are parents to small children, just like Mr. Lowry, and they all hope for leniency when it’s their turn in front of the judge.

I think what is truly upsetting me is the attitude of exceptionalism behind Mr. Bonsib’s statement. Lawyers like Mr. Bonsib always imply that something particularly tragic has occurred when elite white men succumb to the siren song of the dope dealer. What rankles me more is the fact that Bonsib didn’t say one word about the fates of the poorer (and almost always darker-skinned) drug addicts who end up doing mandatory minimum sentences for engaging in the exact same behavior that Mr. Lowry did.

Bonsib, and others of his ilk, could have used the case of Matthew Lowry to decry drug sentencing laws or the fact that this society continues to criminalize the illness of drug addiction. He also could have used the opportunity to apologize to all the drug-addicted people that Lowry helped to incarcerate.

Instead, Bonsib (very subtly) played the white male privilege card. To make matters worse, the judge played along.